


Prosopagnosia

by ZiGraves



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZiGraves/pseuds/ZiGraves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can always recognise Cecil Baldwin. He’s one of those people, you know the sort, who happen to look just exactly the way they sound.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prosopagnosia

You can always recognise Cecil Baldwin. He’s one of those people, you know the sort, who happen to look just exactly the way they sound. Really, you couldn’t imagine a better fit for that voice than the man you see around town sometimes.

\----

_I appear to be experiencing some sort of mild individually linked face blindness, or prosopagnosia. The individual who induces it has confirmed his identity to me on multiple occasions, including via photographic ID, which I have taken photocopies of and appended to this file._

\----

Old Woman Josie knows Cecil very well. Such a nice young man, with that neatly parted hair and always so smartly turned out with his vests and bowties even in high summer. She was very pleased that he took her advice about using milk now and then when he washed his face, because he’s always kept the nicest skin, very smooth and quite pale despite the desert sun.

\----

_Have discussed the individual with other residents in the town, who do not appear to suffer the same problem upon viewing the individual. They can all so far describe his particular tics and mannerisms and give good account of the peculiar intensity of his gaze._

\----

Mayor Pamela Winchell can always spot Cecil in a crowd. That damn hat with the press ticket in it, that sunburn, those sneaky little eyes, that way he feigns being hurt when she refuses an interview again. Oh yes, she knows exactly what Cecil looks like. But he keeps getting into town meetings no matter how many times she instructs the security to keep him out.

\----

_My studies have not, to date, found a single other instance of single-individual prosopagnosia in any of the medical or psychological archives I’ve trawled. Additional research confirms that the individual is not wearing masks or prosthetics, and has not been somehow changing his ID. This is not a prank._

\----

Steve Carlsburg tries not to look directly at Cecil any more.

\----

_Individual certainly does not experience the same problem with me, greeting me with enthusiasm often before I am aware of his presence. Following several meetings, including frankly outlandish coincidental exchanges, I think I am starting to pick up a few reliable traits that I can latch onto as identifiable features. Will continue to keep these notes as items of possible interest to researchers in related fields._

\----

Intern Dana saw Cecil almost daily, before the Dog Park. He liked to stay youthful, and she liked that about him. Sure, his t-shirts were sometimes kind of oversized and his angular, geometric tattoos tended to peek out from under the sleeves, but he was really good about wearing shirts that advertised local businesses and supported local causes. She hoped she could get into the radio business and support Night Vale like that some day.

\----

_Might delete or hide this entry later. Individual - Cecil - is definitely starting to anchor some visual traits, though I still can’t actually pinpoint which ones. More with every time we bump into each other and every time we talk. I’m not sure this is how prosopagnosia’s actually meant to work, but the better I know him the better I can see him. I haven’t mentioned this to him yet. I don’t want to offend him. I haven’t worked out whether that’s out of good manners, or because he’s very powerful in the local community, or possibly for more personal reasons._

\----

Big Rico can spot his best customer a mile off. That tall, dark, elegant man with his hair close-cropped and shaved into dyed white spirals that match his pale, swirling tattoos. Cecil’s voice is as rich and dark as his skin, and Big Rico gave him a free t-shirt to continue advertising around town even when he’s not speaking on the radio. It’s a little tight across his tall, broad frame, but that just means the logo doesn’t get lose in the drape of fabric.

\----

_Cecil is becoming more definite every time I see him. His appearance solidifies further even through the course of a conversation - providing the conversation includes discussions about ourselves and not just about current events. Still no single regular feature, but more and more things that suggest it’s him at a glance. This is definitely not how prosopagnosia works, and I can’t find a name for or reference to anything even remotely similar._

\----

Telly the Barber barely knew what Cecil looked like, because the man always insisted on cutting his own hair and never came into the shop. But he knew damn well what Cecil’s hair looked like. A mess, that’s what it looked like, never seen a decent short back and sides in its life. And Telly was going to demonstrate what a respectable haircut looked like if he had to shear every cactus in the desert.

\----

_In addition to becoming more… recognisable… in appearance, Cecil is… I don’t know how to put this… he’s getting less human, the better I know him. And it’s been so gradual that it doesn’t even bother me, which is worrying and which I really need to look into. I think this has stopped being a scientific diary of documentable phenomena and started being a descent into madness, but the clarity I still possess to be able to type it is nice._

\----

Tamika Flynn has only seen Cecil once or twice, but after she got managed to bring some journals and investigative stories out of the library she’s decided she wants to be like the skinny ginger man some day. She fought the head librarian by herself, so she’s pretty sure she can probably get the hang of reporting, and she joined the school podcast club to get a headstart before she’s old enough to intern anywhere. She wonders if it’ll be dangerous. All his scars looked pretty cool.

\----

_Cecil has definitely stopped being human. I checked some of my earliest entries and they confirm I used to see him as a pretty standard human male, just with some difficulty remembering details like hair colour or face shape. But now he’s… loosely humanoid. More than the standard model with four limbs. He looks like a best-of collection of every obligate carnivore near the top of its respective foodchain, I couldn’t even class him as strictly mammalian. I’m not sure if I can even class him as bipedal. Still no definite, stable appearance, but reliable indicators. He’s… recognisable._

\----

Of everyone in town, Carlos the Scientist didn’t know what Cecil looked like. He’d spent years learning that nothing could be assumed until it was observed, and never really got a clear picture of what he expected from Cecil. The man’s voice ranged from velvet dark to chipperly girlish and his tone, presentation, everything varied just as much. Carlos made no assumptions of who or - given the lack of reliable physiology in Night Vale - what Cecil might be.

\----

_I told Cecil about the notes and the trouble recognising him. I thought he was offended, because he went quiet and made that ‘oh’ noise, but apparently not. He asked a few questions about what I could see, which I found I wasn’t able to answer because though I could definitely recognise him I discovered I was unable to describe any singular feature with any degree of confidence. I can give an overall impression - mostly bipedal, carnivorous, vaguely humanoid, uncertain number of limbs beyond four, all as previously documented. This appeared to satisfy him._

\----

Cecil Baldwin has never been particularly bothered by what he looks like, comfortable to simply be in the eyes and ears of others. But he knows that some perceptions of reality are more true than others. Carlos’ perception feels the truest of them all.

\----

 _Strictly not for any later publication: very glad I took the time to fully investigate the appearance of Cecil Baldwin. Dexterity of pseudopods will require a_ great deal _of further hands-on analysis. To this end, have invited him for dinner next week. And to stay, afterwards._

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to explore the idea that Cecil has a lot of manifestations, that he's viewer dependent... except to those who know him well enough. I hope it worked.


End file.
